Fall from Grace

by Pat Brown

It used to be the men who just walked away from it all. The man who went out for a pack of cigarettes and never came back was not just a Hollywood movie contrivance. More than one woman could tell a story about a husband who left for the corner market and kept right on going. But those were the days when a woman pretty much knew her fellow had deserted her, and she didn't demand a police investigation that would end up costing the jurisdiction a fortune. And the man just left; he didn't stage his flight as an abduction.

Then along came a bug-eyed spider by the name of Jennifer Wilbanks, the so-called Runaway Bride. Four days before her April 2005 wedding, she vanished. Because she had left no note and made no phone call to her fiancé, and because some of her clothing, clumps of her hair, and a weapon were found, indicating the possibility of foul play, a major search was launched. Most importantly, family and friends swore up and down she had no questionable history of narcissism or attention-seeking, and their daughter would never do such a thing (let's ignore her three arrests for shoplifting and dumping her previous fiance). Sixty-thousand dollars later, Wilbanks turned up claiming she had been abducted, a story she finally confessed was a lie. She claimed she had just gotten cold feet, but this extreme behavior is more indicative of a female psychopath wanting a lot of attention. She got it, a real tough sentence of community service, and a book deal. Woo hoo. And now she is in love again.

Audrey Seiler, another purposefully gone-missing woman, cost the taxpayers $100, 000. The supposedly angelic, straight-A University of Wisconsin student went missing exactly one year before Wilbanks, although she is not nearly as well remembered. Search teams scoured the area for five days until she was found in a marshland, wild-eyed and raving. She, like Wilbanks, claimed she had been abducted. Her parents, like Wilbanks's parents, told police that she was not the kind of girl who would run away or fake her own abduction. Yet she did, and all to get her boyfriend's attention. She got no more jail time than her soulmate, Jennifer. I don't know what she is doing today.

And now, we have Emily Grace. Friends and family started a Facebook page when she went missing this past August. She left behind a couple of children, vanishing after a concert. The search led from her home state, New Jersey, to Celebration, Florida, where she was seen on video at a bank cleaning out her bank account. This 45-year-old woman told no one she wanted to disappear, and her family and friends stated vehemently that this was out of character. Nancy Grace, in spite of her familiarity with other runaways like Wilbanks and Seiler, wanted to believe this time around that the family was telling the truth, that this mother wouldn't desert her kids. Nancy believed someone abducted Emily, forcing her to get her money out of the bank. Many agreed with Nancy that this must be what happened, especially when Emily's personal items -- her dress, her keys, her credit cards -- were found strewn on a golf course by the side of the road like they had been tossed out of a moving car. It was this very same information that led me to believe Emily Grace had staged an abduction just like Wilbanks. Nancy and I had quite a tiff about it on her show! I turned out to be right on this one.

After a month on the lam, Emily is now back home. Isn't that sweet? And the police are filing no charges against her in spite of the fact that three states ran up bucks looking for her. But even more galling than this was when her parents asked that we all respect her privacy and not bother her. "We understand that there may be many questions about what has happened over the last several weeks," her parents said, "but we ask you to respect Emily's privacy during this time of healing and transition."

Questions? You think? How about an apology? And a payment to the police departments?

For all of you families out there with the next Wilbanks, Seiler, or Grace: When your squirrely one goes missing, don't put up a Facebook page begging everyone to get involved with the search, don't tell the police your black sheep never exhibited any behaviors that raised your eyebrow, and please sign a statement that you will be willing to foot the bill if your darling, the one "who would never go off without telling us," shows up tanning herself on a Florida beach with a margarita in her hand.

Finally, apologize to all the future real abduction victims who will get a less-than-enthusiastic, halfhearted investigation because you cried wolf and made us skeptics.

Oh, and to the next woman who wants to run off, for goodness sake, leave a note. And to the ones who actually fake their own abductions, I hope they throw the book at you. Enough is enough.